Talk:A. Little: Devious/@comment-30564209-20180226215627/@comment-4689777-20180227060022
Here I thought that you saying you didn't know where to start with this review was a good sign... cri. I mean, it's annoying enough when you waste words on tangents, so to make us read a while monologue about good places to start and such before using the next seven loooong paragraphs to fucking eviscerate us was rather cruel, no? We didn't pitch ALD because we wanted it to be a surprise. Yes, I've read your whole thing above, but I'm going to fail to take that into account here because I read it while walking home from work in the cold, I'm very tired, and I only have the energy to mentally comprehend one thing at a time... and barely do that, even, I just didn't wanna have to wait 'til morning. Or afternoon, rather. And thus stands my own tangent. We too loved DB's ending, and didn't want to tarnish it, and so we didn't. We very purposefully included no butlers, nor anyone too relevant to them. Basically, the Big Seven were off-limits, and even people like Nadia - who had the opportunity to appear in Kathryn's A.03 flashbacks, setting her up with Kevin as we learned in 3.12 - I decided to forbid. We wanted to preserve that, because their story was complete. The reason this series came into being, besides you planting the seed, was because we realized there was story potential left for Aliza Little. I disagree with your statement that the existing characters' personalities were not worked on. In my honest opinion, the character of Aliza was deepened, developed and strengthened over the course of these past six weeks. Going further into her past and connecting it to the ending we gave her, and also salvaging that S2 mystery that everyone fucking hated, and showing her to be over Joe and confident in herself... And also Kathryn, who was given a new, equally fitting ending that we just loved the idea of. Here Comes Kathy Boo Boo. I don't know how well you responded to the endings, but I'm a big fan of hers. She got an informal redemption, but still got the short end of the stick. Fame, not fortune. And there's something Jo added that wasn't in the original plan (which was all me, I admit; I planned this ep start to finish) where Kathryn says that Aliza has been more a mother to her than Celeste ever has, and that just made me really appreciate what these two women have meant to each other over the past 6 episodes, and helped validate the series as a whole to me. As it came down to Kathryn choosing her mother over Aliza (something I loved about this finale is that it got to prove certain developments, putting characters in moral and personal dilemmas, e.g. Kathryn here and Mike with the remains), except she didn't, because Aliza's been the one begrudgingly taking care of her all this time. And obviously Aliza has a hidden soft spot for Kathryn, in that she keeps letting her off for shit, which again helps deepen her looking at her mommy issues and the fact that she's barren... so yeah, it wasn't a buddy cop show, but something about that innovation just made me really adore these two women as a pairing. Okay. So. The comedy saturation thing. That was you, dude. There I was, writing A.03, pouring jokes into a scene and wondering... is the story being lost here? Is there too much comedy? And you assured me "no", as you said. I still wasn't entirely sure, but then the episode aired, and you addressed the comedy saturation thing, and assured us it was a non-issue. So basically you paved the way for the stuff you ended up hating, and that's rather fucking annoying, dude. Plus the fact that you went back here on stuff you liked previously, and you were our only reader, and we already knew Ben was gonna hate it all because yeah, and so we were catering to you, and giving you more of the stuff we thought you would like. I don't know if you noticed, but the first one or two episodes were more toned down than the rest of the series. I actually limited myself, when writing the Pilot, to one swear word per scene. Then that just sort of... got chucked out the window. We decided fuck it. Because you seemed to encourage the trashiness. You loved everything about Shaniqua Mae. And here we are. I'd like to say this. While DB was drama first, comedy second... ALD was always comedy first, drama second. I know I said above about worrying over comedy saturation, but it was still the case. This is a comedy with a dramatic arc, because it's led by comedic characters (but of course comedies can still be serious). It's hard to explain, but basically... well... DB had its share of cartoonish characters... and this spin-off was basically all of the cartoonish characters thrown together, you know? So it couldn't not be cartoonish, and you seemed to like it, and... it's 5:43 AM. I'm trying to justify myself, and I know what I want to express, I'm just having trouble actually expressing it. I'm sorry. I'm quite sad because this review kinda makes me feel like I've wasted six weeks of my life working hard on something. Constructive criticism is one thing, so we can "do better next time", but... there isn't going to be a next time. So, you're right, DB is tarnished, but moreso by this. Idk. Moo. I'll get back to responding. We got lazier in the writing, but felt okay with it for the sake of comedy. You mention the narrative voice, and we came to sort of view that as ourselves being the JtV narrator. So, Shaniqua Mae did it. You say we always make the comic relief characters the culprit, but I dispute that. Yes, Justine was a comedic character, but she was also essential to a butler's plot, so she was always more. You the listed off Rochelle, but she was never a revelationary culprit, her mystery was a "what did they do?" not a "who did it?" - and it wasn't the main mystery. And Juanita, again, was a side-mystery. But yeah, okay, you guessed Shaniqua, fair enough. It was I who came up with it. Jo was originally content with Henry killing himself as the twist. But I wanted poison as something a little bit extra. Aaaaand then breast milk entered into the equation. Look, I like things to connect. I never like anything to feel like it's insignificant. Breast milk had already been established as a thing, so I wavered from the original plan, where Shaniqua simply dropped Antwon with a roofie, and poured rat poison into Henry's coke from a bottle... because, well, I figured if one ingests something, it goes into their breast milk, and so if one were to drink poison, the poison would go into their breast milk, and I don't recall you complaining about it with Antwon, and it seemed funny... so yeah. That. ALSO it's not actually chocolate milk. It's just an awful color from all the chemicals she injects into herself, being a huge druggie. Maybe not clear enough, but certainly stated. I kinda can't be bothered to reread everything that you said, so there are probably some things that need responding to, that I'll remember later, that won't be in here. OMG though I kept thinking the evisceration would end (after like 2 paras maybe) but it was literally the whole review. You mention three things that made you laugh, all in the closing narration, and, like, Christ, man. I dunno did you at least enjoy the drama of the undercover stuff... or the chopper landing... or the fight... idk... just, you coulda forced some compliments in there, it's very bleak and disheartening to read. BUT I reassure myself by reminding myself that we wrote this series for ourselves at the end of the day. And I know that I'' love it, so it doesn't really matter if you or anyone else hates or dislikes it (even if you fed your ''own dislike of it which is annoying as all shit but still I love this show a lot and am proud of it). You addressed some things that I myself was unsure of. As mentioned, swearing being too excessive, aaaaaand then the racism. Haha. Honestly never thought you'd have a problem with that, though. We were making literally no statement. It was just a present theme. Silvia's extra story was extra. But she became Mayor. New Wikerly Hills is the renamed town, same place. Aaaand sorry about Michelle lol. She was just difficult. I accept your criticisms of her as legit. She's main because we felt a member of the mystery slut's family should be main. There should be a main with close ties to the dead person. Kathryn and Aliza were never central or pivotal to the DB universe. They were always extra comic relief, close to no butlers (yes, Aliza loved Joe, but she was irrelevant to him ultimately). So it felt okay to take them and run with them. OH MY CHRIST RENA JUDGE QUINNSON IS LITERALLY EXACTLY THE SAME AS SHE WAS IN DEVIOUS BUTLERS, WTF CHARACTER WERE YOU READING BACK THEN?!!!! Cool that you liked Mike. Didn't think Celeste stopped being sophisticated. Yeah, Sadie was kinda different A.02. There's always dissonance when you have two writers writing for the same character. Again, soz. You end on an apology, which, good, after that fuckin' slap in the face. This makes it look like I can't take criticism well, or that I'm ignoring it, or like whatever, but meh. As stated, I love this series. I love its characters. I love Aliza Little and Kathryn Kappelletti, and you seemed to love them too right up until the last minute. But, planning this episode, I loved it. Writing this episode, I loved it. Reading this episode and putting it together, loved loved loved. And I shall try my best not to allow for you to take that wonderful sense away from me, as you very nearly did.